Pay

[j.sabourn]

Probably because you paid off. In a foreign port. There was no need to go into the pool if you were on company contract. I was always on contract when on British Deep sea ships. Was a small insurance of getting redundancy, KT loss of doss was the bane of most mates life's. If you got a Sea lawyer on board who wanted to go by the book it made if the mate so desired to knock all overtime on the head and all missed out. The likes of getting 3 hours a day, stay 1800 hrs to 2100 hrs , not that it was worked more often or not it was only a show and come 1900 hrs everyone was showered and watching a movie. Then the old sea lawyer gets called out at 0400 for 10 minutes to assist the watch to put the pilot ladder over the side and claims 2 hours overtime and 2 hours L.O.S. then you had to start all over again for the next day trying to get 8 consecutive off. It was a pain in the ass for keeping overtime sheets up to date. It was done away with on British ships it was replaced by 12 hours a day and no overtime, so who got the sh###y end of the stick. Those who used the system of loss of sleep for their own ends were the usual one or two you found on most ships of that period of uncertainty in the 60s. Cheers JWS

[Lewis McColl]

In todays world you now have to fill in an hours of work sheet. I cannot remember how it actually worked. But you were allowed to work x amount of hours consecutively and then you had to have x amount of hours rest period. If you got a callout say an alarm you put down a minimum of 1 hour. As Gas eng I was my own department so you were on the bells every night and during the run down the west coast on India in Monsoon season you knew you were never going to get any sleep as Gas carriers have a very high free board especially my last ship Ghasha th.jpg usually you had 4 days of 30 degree rolls. Mind you no one really gets any sleep when it is like this and I am sure a few here will know all about running down west coast of India. Anyway I digress. At the end of the month you handed in the hours of work sheets and then a row would breakout with he old man as he would say you have exceeded your hours of work. So let's see I was up at this time for cool down and then we got alongside delayed starting discharge/loading then we had a stop as shore side could not control there tank pressures and refused to flare so started to use the gas return line thereby increasing our cargo tank pressures. So we had to reduce the discharge rate which caused an arguement with shore side because they had a ship going to anchor, blah blah. It was a waste of time filling the sheets in as it was all falsified in the end. I got to the stage were I just told the oldman you fillit in and I will sign it.

[Keith Tindell]

JS, yes, the mate i was talking about was a A1 bas****, he spoke to everyone as tho you were something the cat brought in, was as cantankerous as he could possibly be, so that was why i think the only time i recall loss of doss being used. we had even written to the company as a lot from the deck dept requesting his relief , but we had to stick it out. Worst mate i ever sailed with, kt

[j.sabourn]

Lewis originally in my time at least, it was an 8 hour day 7 days a week at sea. If the the ship was at sea on a Sunday one got a Sunday at sea which was a day's leave and a day's subsistence If over 8 hours at sea. Annual leave was on about a par with annual leave ashore. If remember correctly was a 6 day in. Port but maybe wrong.they then broiught in a 9 hour day for accomodation cleaning and then a10 hour day to cover drills Etc. somewhere along the line the purpose of the extended hours got lost an a10 hour a day was accepted as norm. The 12 hour day was slipped in somewhere along the line and overtime disappeared don't know when as I was working offshore by this time. However by this time the decimation of the British merchant service was on its way. If anyone ever got shafted it was seamen in general. The loss of sleep was an appeaser or so the seamens union thought it was just another nail in the coffin. Roughly speaking a person had to have 8 consecutive hours off in every 24 if not was paid in overtime rates. Also any one called, outside working hours had to have a minimum of 2 hours overtime. Today on most ships due to the manning it is nigh on impossible to achieve 8 hours off. This was brought out as a safety factor, what price safety today to those who preach it. Cheers JWS

[j.sabourn]

Rare to see an honest overtime sheet Lewis. The only problem was to get the hours lined up so as to appear all correct to those ashore and prevent criticism. There was always someone ashore in some part of the office who wanted to make a name for themselves , the equivilant of Keith's mate at sea. Such is the rise to stardom for some people. I don't know what a seamans wage is today on a British ship, that's if there are any, but hope those that hung on to the end it was worth their while. JWS

[Keith Tindell]

I remember my first couple of trips there was no overtime at weekends, even for watch keepers , but weekends were stand down, apart from wheelman and lookout, and of course myself as a lowly peggy. I don't know about cooks etc. I am sure that is correct, as i recall the introduction of weekend overtime, which of course meant the end of stand downs. Sure someone will correct me if my lovely brain cell has failed again !!, kt

[cappy]

###one thing for sure nobody ever went to sea for the money

[j.sabourn]

There was paid overtime in 1953 because a first year apprentice got 9 pence an hour or was it 1/3d. For a 7 month trip had 25 pounds anyhow with of course the wages. That with the 90 pound or was it 75 pounds a year thought I was a millionaire. My indentures show 75 pounds but think we got a rise about that time. The big old white fivers everyone thought they were forgeries and had to write your name and address on the back.Good job Cappys girl friend in Japan wasn't a gold digger. Cheers JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

###one thing for sure nobody ever went to sea for the money

Well not in our day Cappy, but I understand the rewards can be quite good now, especially when combined with the leave periods, but still would not want to go now, think of missing all those 30 plus day passages and the time in port, nowadays quick passages. No bars, no time in port. no 50/60 shipmates on the average tramp, no phones, no i-pads, no internet, no films, only books and well thumbed magazines and our various hobbies, mine was colouring black and white photos for crew mates as well as being a member of various skiffle groups, when we played in Oz it was free beer for any crew off our ship, memories money cannot buy

[cappy]

Well not in our day Cappy, but I understand the rewards can be quite good now, especially when combined with the leave periods, but still would not want to go now, think of missing all those 30 plus day passages and the time in port, nowadays quick passages. No bars, no time in port. no 50/60 shipmates on the average tramp, no phones, no i-pads, no internet, no films, only books and well thumbed magazines and our various hobbies, mine was colouring black and white photos for crew mates as well as being a member of various skiffle groups, when we played in Oz it was free beer for any crew off our ship, memories money cannot buy

####long runs ivan from the tyne down to auckland ...day after day the routine hypnotic ...a good shields crowd no tossers a dream of a world then booooom ashore and do the biz...